Yet, with just seven weeks until the Jan. 10 primary, Romney’s strategists don’t consider New Hampshire a sure bet. New Hampshire’s inveterately independent-minded and mind-changing voters make Romney and his team anxious.
“What makes me nervous is history,” said Tom Rath, a senior adviser to Romney and a longtime presidential strategist in New Hampshire. “It’s like having a five-run lead at Fenway Park. Those leads can evaporate quickly. It’s a hitter’s ballpark, and somebody can always make a run. You’ve got to get all 27 outs.”
“New Hampshire,” Rath added, “is the paradigm of Yogi Berra’s comment, ‘It ain’t over till it’s over.’ ”
Romney is trying to demonstrate momentum here, and will gain an important new supporter Sunday when newly elected Sen. Kelly Ayotte, one of the highest-profile state Republicans who had not backed a candidate, will endorse him at an afternoon rally in her home town of Nashua.
But others are trying to stop Romney’s march to the primary, including former Utah governor Jon Huntsman Jr., who has been logging more time here than any other candidate. On Tuesday, he celebrated his 100th campaign stop, a town hall meeting at the Portsmouth Elks Lodge, where he joked that these days he’s subsisting on lobster rolls and speaking with a local accent. An independent group financed by his wealthy father is blanketing the airwaves with pro-Huntsman advertisements.
One new poll, however, suggests it’s not Huntsman but former House speaker Newt Gingrich who may be in a dead heat with Romney here. The survey, released Friday by Magellan Strategies, had Romney at 29 percent and Gingrich at 27 percent. But it is considered less credible than other polls because it relies on automated phone calls rather than live interviews.
Indeed, Magellan’s findings are out of step with other public polls; a Bloomberg News survey earlier in the week had Romney at 40 percent, followed by Rep. Ron Paul at 17 percent and Gingrich at 11 percent. The Romney campaign’s internal polling also gives him a similarly sizeable lead, aides said.
Asked Friday night if he could beat Romney in the Granite State, the usually confident Gingrich sounded unsure. “Who knows?” Gingrich said. Then he thought about the latest poll and added, “It’s more plausible tonight than it was yesterday.”
Huntsman’s chief strategist, John Weaver, who helped engineer Sen. John McCain’s victory in New Hampshire’s 2000 primary, said that voters here view Romney as “the incumbent” and that there’s an opening for a contender who can build a passionate following before Romney runs out the clock.
Loading...
Comments